Silent Hill: Child of Flames
by suyuku
Summary: An original story concept taking place in silent hill, with mentioned and physical cameos of characters wanted to add who would show up in the category of characters but only a limit to four read the story to find out who is mentioned or who get's an appearance as well as journeying with Patrick and what he has done to bring him to this town. Enjoy and comment please!
1. Introduction

Silent Hill: Child of Flames

Patrick Desman, a detective with a looming past and a horrible memory he only wishes he could forget, but can't. On his way home from a court hearing he stops in a small gas and bar, while there he has a run in with a strange person warning him about something that he should avoid. Only to find himself in that place he should have avoided but couldn't.

Silent Hill, the ghost town thought to have been abandoned after a number of _strange _incidents that happened over the many years.

Only now Patrick is involved, and he has to try and find a way out, along with helping a strange girl escape before the return of the Order gets their hands on her again.

But with monsters, shadows from the past and disturbing large man wielding a deadly long blade and spear, getting out is going to be a lot more difficult than originally planned...


	2. Chapter 1 Rumored Ghost Town

Chapter 1 Rumored Ghost Town

"Yeah, I know but I'll be home quick as I can." Patrick Desman said to his wife over the phone. "I'm sorry Susan the trial took longer than it was originally planned, turns out one of the jurymen went nuts and was on side with the accused… but I'll tell you the rest later."

"It's alright, you and I have both gone through the same thing once before, shouldn't surprise me, just be safe out there. I've been told that strange things happen on that road…"

Patrick sighed. "Susan those are just rumors, they hold no solid evidence of what goes on this road or even that town for that matter."

"I just worry about you Patrick, being a detective has always been a difficult and dangerous job; you never know what you'll face out there."

As he listened to his wife his green eyes spied a small gas and dinner off to one side of the road and turned in to the lot. He had been on the road well over two hours and he knew that his gas tank was just starting to run only on fumes, not to mention finding something for him to eat was not a bad idea ether. "The only thing that's truly out there is human beings with a warped sense of reality, thinking that they could get away with any to everything in the world. In my job I have yet to encounter real monsters."

"Patrick I know that, but there are such things as monsters, many people are. You know that better than most…"

Filling up his car with gas he had to agree with his wife, people could easily become something that they despised, but in ways sometimes when doing the thing that seen as wrong or evil could very well be the one thing that keeps a person alive.

But ever since Elaina's death he could only see people as monsters.

"How's Anna?" he asked derailing his thoughts from the memory. "Is she doing alright?"

"She misses you if that's what you mean. But yes she's alright, she's wondering when you're coming home, I keep saying it's soon but she doesn't believe. It's the nightmares again."

He frowned. "I thought she was taking medicine for that. Did the prescription run out?"

"No, but they seem to no longer work, the doctor says I should have a stronger prescription but I'd rather not do that with the possible side effects and all. She's really worried about you Patrick; she keeps saying that you'll be eaten by a monster."

His frown deepened, this was something new. Not once did Anna ever say she had a nightmare involving other people other than herself and Elaina. This bothered him, and he knew if he wanted Anna safe then he'd have to take a shortcut through that ghost town. With all the rumors thousands of people avoided the place, and with good reason. Over the years there had been multiple deaths with unexplained motives, one of which that was almost twenty years now was The Walter Sullivan Case round one, two, and three.

Another was that of a child, much longer before the murders, who had been burned severely by a cult known as the Order, for some strange religious reasons that were never really explained followed by a police officer named Cybil Bennett, who had disappeared following a car with a father and daughter never to be seen again. And every so often there had been stories of ghosts haunting the small lakeside town, he didn't believe much in ghosts but that place scared off many, and yet at the same time invited those who believed in ghosts and cults hoping to catch glimpses of the one who once inhabited the town.

"I… I'm sorry Susan; I honestly don't know what to say to that, the best that can come to mind is to say that I won't be eaten by anything and that I'll come home no matter what it takes."

"No it's fine, it's just I worry about you, and when Anna says things like that I tend to worry even more, I know it's silly."

Patrick shook his head and smiled slightly. "Don't say it's silly, I'm actually kind of relieved that you worry like that, if you didn't I'd be a bit worried about our marriage."

"So when do you think you'll be home?" she asked going back on topic.

"I hope to be home ether by late this evening or early tomorrow. There's a shortcut that I can take so maybe that'll help with getting home. I need to go pay for gas, I'll call you when I know I'm closer to home okay?"

"Okay, and don't forget to eat something too, don't want you starving yourself just so you can rush on home."

"I will, give my love to Anna." Hanging up Patrick placed his phone into his dark grey jeans pocket before placing the pump back where it belonged before heading over towards the dinner. Reaching for the door it suddenly burst open with two teenage adolescents running outside laughing madly about something. Patrick glared at the boys, these days teens didn't have much in the way of manners but with how much technology has expanded the world it was no surprise how much it's diminished a person's common sense and being kind to others.

Heading inside he walked over to the till where a middle-aged waitress with hazel graying hair that seemed to wear just a little bit too much red lipstick, she looked at him with a smile. "What can I do for you handsome?" she asked with a slight smile.

"I'd like to pay for gas and if I could get anything to eat here too."

"Sure, though you won't find much in the way of healthy food, at least not around here, you might have better luck with something from the city of Ashfeild if you ask me. Hate to see a looker like yourself drop dead from one of Hank's artery clogging food."

"Maxine what the hell do you think you're doing?" the cook yelled from behind the grill. "Are you trying to throw out good paying customers? Are you trying to ruin your job and my business?"

"What business?" she yelled back. "It's practically a ghost town in here! The only customers we ever seem to get are those kids who are into all that occult garbage! This wouldn't keep happening if you moved closer to that other town. The only normal people we ever seem to get are this nice young man like this and that sweet girl."

Patrick frowned slightly before the waitress looked back at him with a smile.

"Sorry about that handsome, you go sit down somewhere good and I'll see what I can get for you."

"Oh, no really that's okay." He said with modesty. "Just something that can keep me going and a strong cup of coffee. I have to get back on the road soon. I just finished with a major issue a few towns away."

"You a cop?" she asked pouring him a mug.

"Detective," he took the cup from the woman's hand and stared down at the black liquid. "A case that I was working on had just come to a close, but it's all of the court hearings that I have to appear at so the one involved won't get away."

The woman was quite for a moment. "You mean that nut job, Robert Daniels, he killed a bunch of kids not too long ago didn't he."

"He did, over the years, killing teens and kids, trying to recreate something from a long dead cult in a ghost town close to here."

The waitress looked stunned all of a sudden and went oddly quite. "It'd be best not to mention such things in a place like this." The cook said as he came out from the back and placed food in front of Patrick. "Bad things can happen to a person if you're not careful. Especially if it's near the town I think you're talking about."

Patrick went quite as he began to eat and drink his coffee, while doing so the door to the restaurant opened with the chime of a bell, Patrick merely glanced at the door of the person who entered. The build was slight, but covered by what looked to be a type of coat, the hood hiding the person's face. The person looked small, possibly a teenager or young adult, without saying a word the person sat down in one over the stools closest to an emergency exit.

"Hey Hun, back again?" the waitress said with a slight smile. "You here for today's special?" when the person nodded, reaching into an inner pocket to pull out money the waitress shook her head. "No dear you keep it, you just stay there sweetie and I'll get you something good to eat okay?"

The person nodded, then noticed Patrick stare and looked at him, giving the man a slight view of the person's face, pale skin, and bright blue eyes, the person was a girl. She merely stared at him with almost in an intense stare with her wide gaze. They were such a pale blue almost like ice or blue fire. Actually the more she looked at him the more her eyes seemed strange to him. Almost like her eyes were glowing.

She averted her gaze when the waitress came back with food and a hot drink for her. "Here you go sweetie, let me know if you need anything else alright?" when the girl nodded the waitress walked into the back only to be whispered harshly at the cook.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just keep giving her free food!"

"Then what am I supposed to do throw her out? She's got nowhere to go, and she's a sweet kid, she even helped you from those people in that group not too long ago or did you forget about that already?"

"It's not like I'm not grateful about that. But you know as well as I do where she's from! Sooner or later, someone's going to pay for it, and it's not going to be me!"

"Stop being such a coward Hank! Where do you expect her to do, to go? Everyone else seems to be after her! You've seen the bruises!" with an aggravated sigh the waitress came out and poured Patrick another cup of unneeded coffee.

"Who's the kid?" he asked softly.

The waitress looked to the girl who continued to eat the large amount of food that had been given to her. "Outside, it's best not to talk about it in here." Patrick followed the woman, whom went out through the front door and lit a cigarette; taking a deep drag she blew a puff of smoke into the air. "That girl inside has been coming here for the past few months. Always around the same time and wearing that same coat. It's like she doesn't want to be seen by anyone. She always sticks to the shadows and keeps quiet and to herself. She saved Hank a few weeks ago from a couple of people who keep causing trouble, she blamed herself for it, and it was the first time that kid showed worry for others. It's those eyes of her's; her gaze seems to scare people."

"Where is she from?" he asked as he crouched down in a squat to give his leg's a bit of a stretch before going on the road again.

The woman shrugged. "No idea, she never says much, but our best guess is that she's from that ghost town nearby. You know the one right, Silent Hill? Hank says she's from there, which I think he's crazy."

"Why do you think that?"

"There's no way she'd be living there! That place has been abandoned for years, you'd have to be a crazy to go in there, and even if you were sane, there's something about that place that gives off bad vibes, and that siren… every so often when I close up for work I can hear it. It sounds like someone's screaming."

Patrick was about to say something when the door opened and the girl from before stepped out. The waitress was the one who spoke to her. "Was the food alright?" when the girl nodded the woman added. "Listen Hun, I know you're going through hell but perhaps this man here can help you, he's a detective, maybe he could take you to some place safe."

He looked up to the woman. "I don't think that'll…

"You…" she spoke causing Patrick to stop mid-sentence she looked down at Patrick with those unsettling blue eyes of her's. "You should stay away from that town, something bad may happen if you do. You should go home, you're wife and daughter will be worried about you. A thick fog is about to settle in, the sooner you leave the better." she then gave another nod to the woman. "Thank you for the food, it was good." She then gave one last look to Patrick before walking into the woods.

"Hey!" Patrick called out to her, only the girl had vanished from view, no longer there as if she vanished into thin air. "What the hell was that?"

"No idea." The waitress responded trying to see if she could see the girl that fled into the woods. "But usually, when she says something bad is going to happen. It tends to come true, I've asked her about it once, and even she says she doesn't know why. But if that fog is coming, then it'd be good for all of us to leave. Never know what could be lurking in it."

He drove down the road relaying the words of what the girl had said repeatedly in his mind, it was like she knew who he was, and the fact that she spoke of his wife and daughter, even though he never even uttered a single word about in the dinner made him feel unsettled. Something about this did not sit right with him.

As he kept driving down the now fog covered road he remembered an unwanted memory, seeing Elaina's bruised and bloodied corpse.

With a reluctant breath Patrick rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb, maybe it was time he talked to someone about it. He found that there would be times he just couldn't fall asleep, for seeing images in Elaina's body would come flashing in his mind; at times it would be the same for Anna as well.

And the thought of putting Anna on stronger medication didn't sit well with him, Anna was only nine years old, a kid like that should never be on such heavy medication even if a doctor says otherwise, there could be long term effects that the doctors didn't think of. When he got home he'd have to have a word with their doctor about this.

Flashing lights in his rear-view mirror drew Patrick away from his thoughts; with a frown he adjusted the mirror for a better look the car behind him looked to have been some type of Jeep with modified body and ultra-high lights. The lights from the car were so bright it was nearly blinding him.

The Jeep sped up and went into the other lane to drive beside Patrick's vehicle. One of the occupants kicked open the back passenger door and hollered in a sick gleeful tone. "Hey cop! What you doing? Don't you know? This road is our territory!"

Patrick didn't respond to him, he merely kept driving on the road, merely slowing down just a bit so if needed he'd step on the gas and leave these punks in the dust. A fight with a bunch of no good thugs was the last thing Patrick needed.

"Hey cop!" the young man shouted again. "Didn't you hear me?" when Patrick refused to speak again he pulled out a gun. "Say something or I'll blow your brains out! This road is our territory, so that means we get your shit understand?!"

_Like hell you will_. He thought with a slight glance and intended to press on the gas when the sound of his car radio began to give off static. Odd, he had that turned off, during all the confusion a blaze of fire that appeared out of nowhere as the Jeep sped up, creating what only could be described as a wall, formed. Patrick stepped on the brakes as fast as he could, while the Jeep on the other hand spun out of control falling off the road and disappearing into the woods.

Soon after Patrick stopped his car the wall of fire simply vanished, getting out he saw that same girl from before standing off to the side, obscured by a tree before disappearing into the woods herself.

"Wait!" Patrick called out to her but she had already fled. Something about this told him to just get back into his car and keep driving. But his morality told him to go after her, to make sure she was okay and that those ones in the Jeep didn't do anything to harm her. "Son of a..." He cursed before going to the back of his car, opened trunk and pulled out ten clips for his gun, putting them in his coat pockets. Then slamming it shut he went to the front and opened the glove compartment where he kept his gun and placing it in his holster.

Shutting his car he locked the doors and headed into the woods, if one of those boys had a gun, chances are the others in the Jeep had their own too.

It didn't take him long to find them, or at least hear them. The sounds of the young men yelling and shouting and the sound of gunfire, and then the sound of that girl from before, she screamed, telling them to leave her alone.

Running through the trees he finally spotted them one of them was on top of her struggling with her while the other two watched with twisted smiles on their faces.

Bastards…

"You're the same goddamn bitch from before, the one at that stupid diner! You think you can do what you did and not have to pay for it?!"

There were three of them all together, but Patrick knew that three against one was not a good number of odds. Picking up a couple of stones near him and tossed them in another direction causing for a good distraction, when all three began to react the girl took the chance to kick the young man before running away.

"Shit!" he cursed, drawing his gun ready to fire, but before that could happen the young man was suddenly lit ablaze with no explanation. The young man screamed out to his two friends for help only for them to run away in fear. "Somebody please help me!" the young man called out one last time before falling to the ground no longer moving, the fire soon going out leaving the body blackened and charred.

"Son of a…" Patrick muttered as the other two men ran off further into the woods, heavy ran began to fall as the girl looked down at the charred dead body before turning and running away when she saw Patrick watching her. "Hey!" Patrick called as he ran after her. "Wait a minute will you? I'm not going to hurt you!"

But the girl didn't listen, she just kept on running, he continued after her, trying to catch up, but the girl was faster, he amazed him at just how much ground the girl could cover. He stopped for a short moment when he reached the road, looking around he saw no signs of the girl. Heading further down the road he could see a thick fog envelop the area.

He frowned, recalling the girl's words of warning, about a thick fog that would cover the area. Patrick knew he saw the girl run in one direction; he tried to go back to his car, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a caesium in the road, stretching a number of feet across and wide. "What the fuck!?" he yelled skidding to a stop so not to fall in. "Where the hell did this come from? What happened to the road? Goddammit…" after a few deep breaths he looked at the large gaping hole more closely. _There's no way in hell that I'd be able to jump across this. Even if I did, I'm not too sure I'd find my car or if it's even still around._

Turning back he headed further down the road the fog becoming thicker the further he walked. He needed to get to some form of life, anything close to a phone, something that Patrick could use.

Through the fog Patrick could feel the gaze of a thousand eyes on him, yet he heard no sound, he strained his ears to hear something, anything out there. There was nothing, nothing but the sound of his footsteps along the concrete.

Then in the distance the fog began to clear, to reveal something of a rather large mass, brows creasing he jogged over to what it could be, hoping that maybe someone would be close by. It was the back of a truck just sitting there in the middle of the road. And it looked to have been there for a very long time.

The logo on the side was browned and torn with age; the words were too faded to read or make out as to where the truck originally belonged too, the tiers were flat all air had left them long ago, not being used and aged from time.

_What the hell? What's a truck doing here out in the middle of the road? Doesn't anyone know how dangerous it to have something like this just lying here, a car could smash right into it, and with such thick fog… but I can't really worry about now seeing as how the road is._

He paused when seeing the driver side door hanging open the licence hanging in the rear-view mirror; taking a closer look he could read the name Travis Grady.

_That's strange, why would a truck driver abandoned his vehicle? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, maybe he saw something?_

Leaving the truck he continued down the fog covered road, walking past decaying billboard signs, his green eyes moving around surveying the area even in the fog he could still make out the outlines of trees, yet no sound could be heard, as if every sign of life fled from this place. Once again he paused when seeing skid marks on the road, looking to his left he could see ripped and smashed trees, from what he could see a bus had crashed, many of the windows shattered, the crunching of glass shards underneath his boots as he walked across. The bus itself looked in relatively good condition if not for slamming into a tree and about ready to fall on its side if Patrick wasn't careful; the smell of rotting corpses and blood filled his nose as he read the name Ryall State Corrections Facility, on the side of the bus.

Patrick frowned once more, first the abandoned truck and now a smashed up bus. Near the doors was a roster of inmate names, one of which did catch his notice was the name Murphy Pendleton, he recalled hearing about what the man had done, stealing a police car and taking them on a full on car chase for ten hours down the eastern seaboard, Patrick had never been in the area but he was not the first to hear the story, the man was then caught and put into Ryall State Prison.

_Murphy Pendleton, I heard about the whole car chase, crazy bastard but I guess he was supposed to get transferred. Wonder how this happened._

He did give the bus a quick once over to see if anything there could be of use to him while trying to ignore the smell of death. The only thing he found that he could use was a pocket flashlight, and some ammunition for his gun, he did think that taking this wouldn't be necessary, but if he had to deal with someone like those punks from before it was better safe than sorry.

It didn't take him much longer to reach a sign that said: _Welcome to Silent Hill _seeing that nearly caused a chill to run down his spine. After all of the stories he heard about this place he made a constant effort to avoid getting close to this town. But once again he stopped to find not just a car but a motorcycle, and it was a police's motorcycle at that. What's more he saw what looked to be the remnants of an ID stuck in the old degraded seat.

He couldn't believe what he was looking at, the ID belonged to Cybil Bennett, his head instantly turned to look at the car, and if this bike belonged to her then the car belonged to the man who he and his daughter went missing years ago. It shouldn't have surprised him, he knew about the stories, the rumors, some of which he did believe other's that he chose to ignore. But seeing this at face value felt wrong to him, he just didn't know how to put it into words.

Part of him wanted to flee, to run back make that ridiculous long jump get into his car and find another route home. But the other part, a part that he began to dislike, was worried about the girl rather than superstition.

He had only taken a single step forwards when he felt the ground shake underneath him, his instinct told him to run, when he did the ground behind him began to open up, falling like a stack of cards underneath his very own feet as he tried to outrun the continues disappearance of ground behind him.

"What the fuck!" he screamed as he ran. "What the hell is going on here?" but even before he could make sense the ground had caught up to him and he began to fall.


	3. Chapter 2 In Silent Hill

Chapter 2 In Silent Hill

Patrick clung to the reminder of the street that had not fallen underneath him, like a frightened cat clinging to the tall curtains of a person's home, refusing to let go or look down as he tried to get his footing so he could climb up.

"Son of a…" he muttered as he tried to keep himself able, slowly he managed to move up, grasping the earth that threatened to crumble underneath his weight. His hand grasped on to the concrete road, hoping that he wouldn't lose his grip from it.

As he looked up he was greeted by an African American man dressed in a uniform. "Hello there Patrick, you seem to need a hand."

Patrick looked at the man, his brow creasing into a frown, just how in the world did he know his name?

"Are you offering?" Patrick asked with slight sarcasm. "Giving me a hand, I mean."

"Son, if I wasn't I wouldn't be here." He knelt down and offered a hand, Patrick was slightly sceptical, he had no idea who this man was, and didn't know how he knew his name, but seeing as this man was offering to help, though if he pushed him off he'd try to grab on and take the man with him.

After a few seconds Patrick took the man's hand, the man then pulled Patrick up on to the road, Patrick sat on the ground and just tried to breathe normally, he felt like his adrenalin was pumping through his body. "Thanks…" he breathed, after another moment Patrick stood up and asked him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Howard Blackwood." The man said.

Patrick would have said his name in return but held back wondering how the man knew it to begin with. "Why are you here Howard?"

"Why am I here?" he repeated before laughing slightly. "Why I'm working Patrick, I'm the postman of this town."

"Postman?" Patrick repeated in shock. "But this town's been abandoned for years, how could you even be living here, let alone working in a place like this."

"This town holds many secrets, and what I do is just one of them, and this town isn't abandoned. In fact many still live here and thrive as a community."

"You're joking right? If what you say is true and there are indeed people still living here than what the hell happened to the damn road?" he said while pointing to the large almost seemingly bottomless caesium that used to be the road. "Things like this don't happen in real life."

"They do here Patrick," Howard said calmly. "After all, this is Silent Hill, strange and unexplainable things happen. But they happen for a reason."

"And what reason would that be?"

"I don't know, but whatever the reason is it brought you here didn't it? Something brought you to this town, now all you have to do is find out why. But it won't be easy."

_I've heard that one before. _"Okay, fine, say I believe you, would you happen to know the way out of this place?"

The man shook his head. "Sorry, I can't help you there. I have to get back to work."

"You've got to be…" Patrick shook his head in frustration before calling out to the man as he began to walk away. "Hold on a second!" the man stopped and looked back at him. "Since you can't help me, then you at least know someone that can right?"

The man thought about it for a moment. "There is, but I wouldn't really recommend you turning to them for help after what Marissa…"

"Marissa?" Patrick said, and Howard trailed off not finishing his sentence. "You know Marissa?"

"Yes, I know her. Sweet girl, though she doesn't trust many people and with good reason after what happened. If you'd like to know where the girl is I can tell you, but she might not help you so you know."

"Where would she be?"

Howard walked over to him and handed Patrick a map of the whole town. "Here this might help you find your way around this place. Now what I am about to say you need to keep under wraps, many people of the town here that remain, have done terrible and unspeakable things. No matter what you cannot let them know where she stays."

Patrick looked at the man, something in his words held a hidden meaning; these people that Howard had said must have done or tried to do something to that girl. "Okay…" he said cautiously. "I won't."

Howard looked at him, eyeing him as if making sure he was telling the truth, after a long pause the man sighed. "Alright I'll tell you, but I can't know for certain if she's there. Marissa tends to go from place to place while trying to go unnoticed. Last I remember the girl was staying in the Blue Creek Apartments, or the Wood Side Apartments. The two are side by side so if she isn't in one she might be in the other."

"Are you sure that she'll be there?"

"Yes, but if not then she might be at one of the two hospitals that are in the town."

"Well do you know which one she'd go to?"

"No, sorry, the girl doesn't tell me much, thinking I might sell her out to someone."

Patrick arched a brow at this. "Isn't that what you're doing right now?"

Again he thought about it for a moment. "I suppose I am, though you aren't one of _them _so I can trust that you won't hurt her."

"I work with the police; I wouldn't hurt another living person."

The man looked at Patrick with skepticism. "Are you sure about that Patrick? We've all done things we regret, big or small it'll always come back to haunt us." he turned to leave, but then paused once more to look back and add. "And if I may say one more thing, if you begin to hear a strange sound, and the world you see starts to change, hide. You'll be safer that way."

"Safe from what?" he called out to the man.

Without looking back Howard said. "One of your worst nightmares…"

Patrick didn't respond to the man as he walked off heading down the street before fading away in the fog. Once Howard was gone Patrick looked down at his map, green eyes scanning for where those two apartments might be, once he located them he headed in the direction, but finding that his whole body was on edge with every step he took.

It was like something from a distance was watching him, and no matter when he turned his head when he felt it was coming from one direction he saw no one there. It was unsettling, like there was an invisible person following him.

Since he entered from Sagan Street all the way to Katz Street, and it was going to be one hell of a walk to get there. But he knew it could have been worse, though he had prayed to god that the ground wouldn't open up like before.

Glancing back at the large hole that he had originally run from, Patrick then turned and began to jog down the street.

Only to soon find problems soon thereafter.

"What the hell?" he said to himself as he stopped; there in front of him was a gaping hole. _Guess I can't go this way… _he thought to himself as he looked back down at the map looking for another way, but soon he found that were a number of them in the streets impeding his progress from getting to the apartments, it was really something Patrick could have done without. "Why the hell is there so many large holes in the middle of the street?" he asked out loud knowing no one could hear him. "Was this one of the strange things that Howard guy meant? How could people still be living here in a place like this?"

Still, Patrick kept going, marking the map every so often if he came across one of those large holes in the ground. Closer and closer he reached the two apartment buildings but then paused when he saw a trail of blood going into a place called Neely's Bar.

"That is a lot of blood." he eyed the entrance contemplating on not going in, but his moral sense of being on the police force got the better of him, drawing his gun Patrick headed into the bar, but finding that it was too dark to really see much other than what light was let in from the front door. His eyes spied something on the floor going closer he picked it up. In his hands was now a flashlight. _This should be useful. _He thought as he turned it on.

Only when he did so the light shined on the torn up corpse came into his line of sight causing him to yell out a cry of fright. Jumping back Patrick brought the light back on to the body as he caught his breath from the sudden scare. Once he calmed down he took a closer look at the slashed up body.

It was originally a man, the body was bloody and sliced almost to ribbons; one of the man's arm and leg were gone and seemed to have spun off into other directions.

"Jesus…" he muttered as he then began to examine the body. He had dealt with gruesome death's in murders but this was horribly gruesome than anything else he had ever seen before. Crouching down he used the flashlight to examine the body. _Damn, what the hell happened to him? _He thought as he looked at the large gaping gashes that looked to be something of a number of blades used at once. It also seemed to be gnawed on, like whatever did this also tried to eat him but failed. What's more the parts that looked eaten also looked slightly charred, as if the flesh had been burning while trying to be eaten.

"Was it some kind of animal that did this…?" his eyes glanced to a note that the body grasped slightly in his cold dead hand. Patrick took it; the note was one page and looked to be a hastily written memo.

_It's coming, the monster that the townspeople calls Knives, it's looking for something, something in one of the rooms of the apartments. I was told by Mathias to keep it and if someone or something tried to get I should swallow the key. Hopefully it won't see me, and I can return to the church soon. Also if I do get back Mathias did say to keep an eye out for that girl. If possible I should try to get her._

_That girl, we need to try again, the ritual for-_

The note ended there abruptly, coated in blood gore and even torn slightly at the end.

"A monster," Patrick said when looking over the note. "He really thinks there are monsters here in this town? Must have been on some type of hallucination drug of some kind, but then again…" he looked back at the body. "I could be wrong." After examining the body again Patrick noticed a flicker of light coming from inside of the body. _The note did say he swallowed a key in case something happened. _He sucked up his pride and stuck his hand in, trying his best not to gage at the sudden revolting smell that came from the corpse or the feeling of reaching inside someone's torn out stomach.

Once he grabbed hold of the object he pulled his hand out and groaned. Shaking the remainder of blood and whatever else was stuck to his skin he looked to the key that he now had in his hand. It was the key to the Wood Side Apartments.

Which was a lot closer now than before, but he couldn't help wondering why the dead man and someone named Mathias was after Marissa, and what did they in tend to use her for as well was another question entirely, one that did not make him feel good. Seeing the torn dead body made his worry rise slightly, if he was thinking what they intended to do then he needed to not only find the way out of this place, but to get the girl out as well.

_That guy Howard, he did say that Marissa might be in ether apartment, I might as well start off with the closest one and work my way up from there._

But before he left he did scour the place for of anything that could be useful, the things he found were handgun bullets, a metal pipe with scissors attached to one end with tape, and a health kit. At first he didn't intend to take it, but seeing as what happened to one guy it might have not been a bad idea to do so.

Leaving the bar he made the remainder of the way to the apartments.

"Finally." He breathed with a sigh of relief. "Kid I really hope you're in this building somewhere, the sooner you and I leave the better."

Using the key he entered the building, the place was completely dark so he had to use the flashlight to see anything properly. The first thing above finding the girl was locating the building's map, Patrick had no intention of wandering around aimlessly with no idea where he was going, one wrong move in a town like this and he could wind up dead or something worse.

A mental image of seeing Eliana on the ground beaten, bloody and unmoving, as the faint sound of crying could be heard, Patrick shook his head getting that thought out of his mind.

He couldn't think of that right now, he needed to just keep moving forward, to get the hell out of this place. Using the key that he found, the doors to the apartment building became unlocked and he stepped inside.

The building was incredibly dark, so dark to the point that he wouldn't have been able to see three feet ahead of himself without the flashlight, making Patrick even more grateful that he took it with him.

He didn't have to go far to find the map of the building's layout. At least having a map would be of use rather than just blindly wandering around the place until he found the girl. His intention, if you could call it that, was to ask Marissa for help in getting out of this town, and if she wanted, he could get her out and take her to a police department that he knew well and trusted so that she would be taken care of and wouldn't have to worry about the so-called people of the town that would for some strange reason stay here, only _if _she wanted to do so.

He was worried about her, yes, but he had his wife and daughter to worry about too, if something happened to him, who knows what Susan would do. Their daughter was already having chronic nightmares and his death, and or disappearance, would only make it so much worse than how she already was now.

That was one thing he wouldn't allow, he needed to keep living, even if it was just for his families sake.

Taking the map of the building Patrick began to look for the girl checking doors only to find that many of them were locked and even parts of the hallways seemed to have been blocked off by metal bars. As if telling Patrick that he wouldn't be able to get through no matter what he did, hindering his progression of the building, which made him feel rather agitated.

Something wasn't right as he continued his way, one of the biggest indicators was the corpse stuffed inside a fridge in room 101. Patrick had read old articles about people that kill and leave the body in a freezer or a fridge so not to attract attention but this just seemed like the person tried to get the body in there but then just decided to leave it not caring who found it.

He felt incredibly disturbed by this, the eerie silence of the building, of the town, everything was so quite like the dead.

This town really was a ghost town, even if not in the literal sense, he had only seen that man Howard, and was told that Marissa was somewhere in this building.

The first floor was uneventful, other than finding more bullets and an old newspaper column written by Joseph Schreiber about a place called Hope House, there wasn't anything truly of importance.

That was until he reached the second floor.

Patrick paused by one of the apartment doors, room 205 which the door was partly open with a strange static sound coming from inside. "Static? Does that mean someone is in there?" opening the door further Patrick entered the room the stench of decay was foul as many cobwebs clung to the walls and furniture.

Seeing webbing made his skin crawl, Patrick never liked spider webs ever since he was a kid. Looking around the room he didn't see any signs of a person living in this apartment, the sound of the static was getting louder with each step he took.

The sound was coming from an armchair that was facing away from him. Reaching out Patrick turned the chair towards him. And soon after let out a gasp of fright.

In the chair was another dead body, only this one was much older than the first, the eyes and cheeks were sunken, lips peeling away to reveal yellow stained teeth, tightly clenched in a terrified grimace. The hair, or what was left, was in wire strands and clumps, hunks of the scalp had fallen off landing on the stained torn pants and the old wooden floor, along with a heavy amount of blood staining the body, chair and floor.

The body was extremely close to skeletal, the ashen skin withered and brittle like old burned paper. There was one thing that Patrick noticed; there were large holes in the body's neck, like two big incisors punctured the throat before draining the life out of him.

"And here I thought the first body was bad, this one is somehow ten times worse. What the hell happened to this town?" his eyes then looked down to the small hand held radio that was lying in the deceased's lap. The strong sound of static emanating from it, as he picked it up he wondered why it was doing that, or why it was even on when the sound the door closing drew his attention away from the body, he thought that maybe it was the wind but when he turned back around the dead body was suddenly gone.

His adrenalin pumping through his veins, everything told him to leave the room, he heard the sound of skittering across the ceiling, using his flashlight he looked around the ceiling trying to find whatever it was that was in the room with him. But wherever he turned he kept missing the being, the sounds of hissing and scrapping reached his ears.

When it stopped suddenly the hair on the back of his neck stood up, whatever it was that he couldn't see was now right behind him. He was sure of it.

Slowly he turned towards it, heart rate racing at an uncontrollable rate, if he were an unfit man Patrick was sure he would have keeled over from a heart attack not too long ago. When he faced what was there and what he saw made every fiber in his body turn to stone.

The creature looked to be a horrid mix of human and arachnid, with the lower half of the torso being a spider and the upper half the woman, the whole body covered in flesh, almost stretched to the point of seeing the bones through the long thin spider legs it had no hair or eyes, and almost slits for nose holes and ears, the mouth was large dislocating the jaw to open revealing large sharp deadly teeth. The fingers of the hands were sharp like claws that could pierce flesh, coated with blood.

"Oh fuck me…" he muttered before quickly taking out his gun when the strange atrocity let out a piercing scream before rushing him, Patrick moved out of the way before the strange creature had the chance to hit him. He shot the thing three times thinking that when he did that it would go down. It didn't, instead it climbed up the walls hissing and snarling before it spit out a webbing like texture that hit the floor, the wood bubbled away, the webbing was made out of some type of acid that burned away things on contact.

Patrick continued to shoot the thing until it finally fell off the ceiling and curled up into a ball with its legs in the air.

"You so better be dead or so help me…" he said giving a breath of relief before inching his way over to the body. He tapped it with his foot and when it made no move to attack it was then that Patrick was finally able to calm down. "What the hell is this thing? Is it a… spider or a woman… shit." His eyes then glanced around the room. "Why do I get the feeling it's not going to be the last one I see ether?"


End file.
